Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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The Forward Collection, ed. by Blake Crouch, was a fun success, except for that one story I didn’t like at all.

Ark by Veronica Roth

Summer Frost by Blake Crouch

Emergency Skin by N.K. Jemisin

The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay

You Have Arrived at Your Destination by Amor Towles

Randomize by Andy Weir

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I’m putting all my reviews of this collection in one post. Blake Crouch commissioned a bunch of his writer friends to bring him stories about some aspect of near-future technology, and how that might affect life on earth. These are what they gave him (along with Crouch’s own story). “Ark,” by Veronica Roth – 3.5 STARS This is miles above the last book I read from Roth in quality. It seems she’s learned how to be subtle, which is good! This first story in the […]

The End…Or a New Beginning

Ark by Veronica Roth

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I was worried I wouldn’t like this one since I hard disliked Roth’s “Divergent.” This book though hit me in a way I wasn’t expecting. Roth talks about the last days on Earth before an asteroid hits and wipes out life on the planet as people know it. What I found interesting is that many people realized this was going to happen and that they still went on, had children, etc. That part of the book was interesting to me. I wish that Roth had […]

All the Most Annoying Parts

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I am a weirdo who watches the films first if there’s a film of a book. Because I’m either going to want to watch it anyway if I like the book, or someone is going to “make me” watch it. By make me, I of course mean enthusiastically encourage me enough that I feel guilty if I don’t and/or adds it to the our Netflix queue so that I watch out of desire for snuggles. Also, if I read the book first, there’s little chance […]

Curiosity Should’ve Killed The Cat… Tris

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The main theme to Divergent is that there are two sides to every coin. Or, in this case, every faction. Humanity has been divided into five factions: Abnegation (selflessness), Amnity (kindness), Candor (honesty), Dauntless (bravery), and Erudite (knowledge). Each believed, on inception, that theirs was the way to prevent future war, and at age 16 the children of this world must choose which they believe. Each faction has their own headquarters and initiation, and if you choose a faction that is not the one you […]

Coming off the rails

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I knew heading in that the second book in the Divergent series was kind of a train wreck, but I am a completist. I am persistent and stubborn and I was on a strong female protagonist kick! I wanted something better, but it was as bad as I had been warned. This second novel seemingly takes place immediately after Divergent ends, although it is hard to know for certain, as Roth is not very good at giving the reader a sense of the time passing. […]

Lumpers and Splitters

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In my archaeology classes, we talked a bit about lumpers and splitters, how people tend to split up species, tool styles, etc – lump them together, or split according some generally subtle difference. I myself tend to waver a bit, but lean towards lumping. This book, which probably has already been read and reviewed by many, premises that a community will split itself up based on differences in personality, detectable and defined by a mysterious drug induced scenario test. But what happens if people can’t […]



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